Figure 1.-- This vintage Strapsleibchen (from the 1950s) shows how the four garter straps were attached. The straps attach with a buckle that allows the child or mother to adjust the length of the supporters to the appropriate height. This design permitted the the stockings to smoothly encase the leg firmly and held in place without wrinkling.

During the 1930s German manufacturers improved the design of Leibchen for long stockings in several ways. They replaced the somewhat flimsy button-hole garter straps with better quality commerical hose supporters. These straps were typically made of wider elastic webbing, equipped with buckles for length adjustment, sewn permanently onto the bottom of the Liebchen, and featured sturdy metal loop and rubber-button clasps for attachment to the stocking tops of the same kind that women wore on their corsets. The metal clasps had the advantage of being stronger than sewn-on buttons and didn't come undone as easily under the pressures of sports or other physical activity. There were also four rather than two garters, so that the stockings didn't sag on the inner thign and were held up neatly and smoothly on the leg from both front and back. This vintage Strapsleibchen (from the 1950s) shows how the four garter straps were attached. The straps attach with a buckle that allows the child or mother to adjust the length of the supporters to the appropriate height. This design permitted the the stockings to smoothly encase the leg firmly and held in place without wrinkling. A German reader writes, "The photograph shows the front of a "Leibchen" (or "Leible" in Southern-German dialect). The front is lower than the back side from which one sees only a small part. There were two forms, the "Schlupfleibchen" which was not able to be opened and had to pulled on over the head during dressing and undressing, and a normal "geknöpftes Leibchen" which had buttons at the back or at the front in the middle up-to-down to open it. In the photograph here it is difficult to see what form is pictured. A "geknöpftes Leibchen" with a row of buttons at the back was in use for smaller children, mother or another person had to help in dressing and undressing. For elder children, say 8 years up, the button row was in front, so that the child was able to do it by himself/herself. I am not sure whether we really see the front of the "Leibchen. The ribbons where the buckles and straps are attached which one sees are longer than those behind. On the back of the body the buckles and straps necessarily had to be longer. I myself never had such a commercial product for holding up my long stockings in winter. My mother used button-hole attachment. My "Leibchen" wwere crocheted by my mother, grandmother or an aunt. During the war-time and after the war it was possible to reuse the yarn to remade a bigger one for the next winter when I had grown a bit."